Researchers create metamaterial that looks similar to 3D Minkowski spacetimes

(a) Schematic view of the experimental setup. (b) Photo of the ferrofluid metamaterial sample next to a permanent magnet. The inset shows excessive ferrofluid on the side of the cuvette, which forms “spikes” along the applied magnetic field. Credit: arXiv:1301.6055 [physics.optics]

(Phys.org)—Researchers from the University of Maryland and Towson University have created a new type of metamaterial that they describe as looking similar to 3D Minkowski spacetimes. In their paper, which they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, the researchers explain how the metamaterial can be adjusted to create a demonstration of a multiverse.

Because the exact definition of a universe is difficult to pin down, it's difficult to say whether the creation of a metamaterial that acts the same as a theoretical universe, is an actual universe if it follows the same rules. And if that metamaterial is capable of demonstrating different types of universes, with unique properties and rules that govern how things behave in them, is it a true multiverse, or simply a simulation of one?

In the case of the metamaterial made by the researchers in Maryland, the answer might lie in the eye of the beholder. They created a solution that had cobalt suspended in kerosene, than applied a magnetic field. Because cobalt is ferromagnetic, the applied field caused the cobalt to line up in columns. But not just ordinary columns, they were mathematically equivalent to a 2+1 Minkowski spacetime. Light passing through the columns has one dimension of time, while light aligned perpendicular to the columns has two dimensions of space. In this configuration, light behaves according to Einstein's theory of relativity, which means, it might be construed to be its own unique universe, albeit, analogous to the one we perceive around us. But the researchers didn't stop there, they found that by varying the amount of cobalt in the fluid, they were able to cause different types of columns to form, collapse, and reform, which don't necessarily conform mathematically to the laws governing our own universe, but do for others, at least in theory. This meant they had created a metamaterial that was able to look like different universes at different moments over time. And if it looked like them, and acted like them, who's to say that each wasn't a unique existence of a true universe?

The researcher's aren't arguing about whether they've created universes in their lab, however, instead, they are demonstrating a new kind of metamaterial that might prove useful in studying how the laws of physics might look in other universes – something that most anyone in the field would have to concede is a very useful thing.

More information:
Experimental demonstration of metamaterial multiverse in a ferrofluid, arXiv:1301.6055 [physics.optics] arxiv.org/abs/1301.6055

AbstractExtraordinary light rays propagating inside a hyperbolic metamaterial look similar to particle world lines in a 2+1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime [1]. Magnetic nanoparticles in a ferrofluid are known to form nanocolumns aligned along the magnetic field, so that a hyperbolic metamaterial may be formed at large enough nanoparticle concentration nH. Here we investigate optical properties of such a metamaterial just below nH. While on average such a metamaterial is elliptical, thermal fluctuations of nanoparticle concentration lead to transient formation of hyperbolic regions (3D Minkowski spacetimes) inside this metamaterial. Thus, thermal fluctuations in a ferrofluid look similar to creation and disappearance of individual Minkowski spacetimes (universes) in the cosmological multiverse. This theoretical picture is supported by experimental measurements of polarization-dependent optical transmission of a cobalt based ferrofluid at 1500 nm.

Related Stories

Spacetime analogs is an emerging field of physics in which scientists investigate systems having mathematical links with general relativity, and test their theories about the early behavior of the universe. The latest in ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- By observing the way that light moves inside a metamaterial, researchers have reconstructed how spacetime has expanded since the Big Bang. The results provide a better understanding of why time moves in only ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long been enamored by the gecko’s gravity defying ability to cling to walls and to let go at will, allowing it to walk around sideways, as have Spiderman enthusiasts. Thus far, unfortunately, ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- If typical black paint absorbs about 85% of incoming light, then a newly designed metamaterial that absorbs up to 99% of incoming light may be considered darker than black." By taking advantage of the ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Over the past few decades, the idea that our universe could be one of many alternate universes within a giant multiverse has grown from a sci-fi fantasy into a legitimate theoretical possibility. Several ...

A new type of active metamaterial that incorporates semiconductor devices into conventional metamaterial structures is demonstrating an ability to have power gain while retaining its negative refraction property, a first ...

Recommended for you

(Phys.org)—According to a new study, there are more familiar strangers in our lives than friends, coworkers, and all other acquaintances combined. Encounters with familiar strangers, defined as pairs of individuals who ...

Researchers at the Division of Solid-State Physics and the Division of Materials Physics at Uppsala University have shown how the collective dynamics in a structure consisting of interacting magnetic nano-islands can be manipulated. ...

An international team led by University of Arkansas physicists has discovered drastic changes in material properties occurring in a group of two-dimensional materials that are being investigated as candidates to power the ...

Physicists of the University of Würzburg have made an astonishing discovery in a specific type of topological insulators. The effect is due to the structure of the materials used. The researchers have now published their ...

Researchers have developed a way to use commercial inkjet printers and readily available ink to print hidden images that are only visible when illuminated with appropriately polarized waves in the terahertz region of the ...

An international team of scientists has succeeded in making further improvements to the lifetime of superconducting quantum circuits. An important prerequisite for the realization of high-performance quantum computers is ...

6 comments

I'm not sure if I get this - this is just an illusion correct? It sounds like the molecules are simply lumping together differently under the influence of the magnetic field, and along the field lines, in the kerosene fluid. I'm sure the kerosene and cobalt molecules, and the magnetic field lines of force interacted some way to create these columns based on the molecular shapes, kind of like Lego's. Just a layman's 2 cents.

The have a substance which can - dependingon the field applied - cause light to behave acording to different 'physics' (I use 'physics' in quotes her, because it's all our everyday physics - but the different state alter the amount of spatial dimensions in which the light can propagate. So in one setting it's 2D plus time and in another it's 3D plus time). In the fluid it's even more complex since the 2D plus time areas are local and appear and disappear with the thermal fluctuations (if I read the arxiv-article right) They sent circular polarized, monochromatic light in - and depending on the field applied - only one polarization direction is allowed in some areas. The larger the field the more/larger such restrictive areas exist at any one time (and hence the more of the emerging light is registred as linearly polarized)

@Raygunner - Metamaterials can bend light in interesting ways that happen to have a mathematical similarity to how light bends in spacetime. What these people have done is to create random fluxuations in their material such that different areas of the material momentarily steer light in different ways. This is in some ways similar to creating multiple universes. Their "metamaterial universes" are 3 dimensional (2 space, 1 time). So no, it is not an ILLUSION... but they're also not universes as you've ever experienced them.

The researcher's aren't arguing about whether they've created universes in their lab, however, instead, they are demonstrating a new kind of metamaterial that might prove useful in studying how the laws of physics might look in other universes – something that most anyone in the field would have to concede is a very useful thing.

This seems interesting; anyway before looking in other universes, maybe it is helpful to visualize clearly how the conventional Minkowski space-time 'physically' looks like as the view below.http://www.vacuum...=7〈=en

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.